Sunday, December 4, 2016

Big Wind Sailing

In three days of sail I saw two sailboats. Between early December temperatures and breezes mostly 15-25 knots for 3 days, folks stay home. Now and then I agreed, but there was also some fine sailing and fine blue skies.

Three Reefs

This is not pretty. I ordered my new main with 3 reefs, but I never got around to setting them, and thus I never worked out the hardware. This morning I was greeted by a sustained 25 knot wind, gusts to 25 knots, and the prospect of a 25 mile beat. So I had to bloody figure it out. Unfortunate, I didn't figure it out until I was out of shelter in about 20 knots, so I did something rather crude with docklines... and it worked just fine.

I have already decided, however, to add a double stopper to the side of the boom (got one free) and use it for both the 3rd reef tack rigging and the main outhaul. There is a cleat now, but it's hard to get the tension right with that.

Two docklines work fine for the clew and outhaul, but I couldn't get them tight to the boom, though that barely matters. A strope hold the tack down, and tension is from the halyard.

Just a little genoa and 3 reefs. The ride was rough as hell, but the autopilot could steer. Peak speed, when the water flattened out in the lee, was 9.1 knots on a very close reach, with just this little bit of sail. I had green water on the salon top. Fun!

Notice that even in 35 knots, I didn't need to secure the bunt. The lazy jacks were enough.

Not all hard work though. Warehouse Creek has some fine kayaking. I also spent many hours testing anchors and diving (dry suit) to see what was going on under there. After all these years, the mud is still teaching me things I did not know.


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